Help getting Vic for post transplant person on medicare.

[orphanedhawk]

Hey everyone,

I found this post on a transplant forum I frequent. Anyone have any ideas of how to help this person??
Here's their post:

I am a post liver transplant coordinator (RN). I have a patient who has failed treatment with interferon and ribavirin and we now want to start her on Incivek. The problem is her insurance (Medicare) has denied because it is not approved for post transplant patients. Does anyone know of a foundation that will help with cost?

[orphanedhawk]

Thanks H.
I have the impression that getting medicare to pay for the drugs is the problem.

[HectorSF]

Getting the antivial drug is not the issue. She should only be treated with treatment her TP center can support. There are many dangerous drug to drug interactions between Incivek and post transplant drugs. Improper treatment could cause liver rejection or worse.

She should only be doing treatment that is approved by her transplant center. It the TP center is doing a study then they will arrange for payment.
It is not up to a RN to decide what treatment she should have. There are few hepatologists who have treated anyone with the new drugs, It is a decision that the transplant center and her hepatologist must make and they need to have a whole protocol in place to do this. It is true that none of the hep C meds are approved for post transplant use.

As with all post transplant medical decisions they must be approved and managed by her hepatologist.

Apparently she doesn't understand how her TP center works?

Hector